Doctor Who supremo Steven Moffat has joked that he would triumph over Peter Capaldi in a battle of who is most knowledgeable about the hit show.

The show's lead writer and executive producer was asked at the Edinburgh International Television Festival if he was daunted by having to work closely with the current Doctor, Capaldi - someone whose knowledge of the show and love of it could possibly exceed his own.

Moffat replied: "His love, we can compete on that, just let it be understood. But in a face-off, in a head-to-head, he's nowhere bloody close."

Moffat added: "I'm ahead on knowledge. I am. Honestly."

Capaldi is a lifelong fan of the show and wrote a letter to the Radio Times about the Daleks when he was a teenager.

Villages of vikings and a city of Daleks await the Doctor in the new series of the BBC show.

The cast of the long-running science fiction hit lifted the lid on some of the Time Lord's new adventures at Comic-Con in the United States last month.

Capaldi said: ''Soaring through all of time and space, series nine sees the Doctor throw himself into life with a new hunger for adventure.

''The Cosmos is there for the taking, thrilling, epic and enticing, and his to play in.

''But he's almost reckless in his abandon. It's almost like he's running from something, something that if it ever catches him will turn his life upside down.''